I found "The last Airbender" a decent movie. From watching it, I couldn't understand the huge amounts of criticism levied against it. Then again, I never watched the original series (and know nothing of the original setting), and the comparison to that appears to be the key element of said criticism. Actually, most negative reviews that I've seen spend a lot of time explaining what the movie is not (i.e., a faithful rendition of the story they'd come to love), while few even try to judge it on its own merits. Personally I think that's a bit sad, because from what I've learned about the series, I'd probably enjoyed it less than the movie.

(And this is probably an appropriate time to wave my flameproof kevlar sign reading "Different strokes for different folks". ;) )

I just watched The Warrior's Way this morning, that should make it all better, it was surprisingly good.

*Aims flamethrower at Psyringe*

Actually, that's pretty much it. The movie on it's own is bland and the typical fantasy CGI effect driven attempt at a family blockbuster movie, but not overall terrible. However, compared to what the fans were expecting, based on a cartoon show that won awards, that had such fun characters and great action sequences, it just failed to deliver. So many of the changes were unnecessary, the acting wasn't that good and the plot took it's time on some scenes and rushed others so quickly. A wasted opportunity indeed, but yes, without having watched the show, people don't find it as bad, but not that good either.

If you have nothing against cartoons and don't mind some childish humor, I recommend the animated series. It's funny, has plenty of actions and a good plot.

and they coundn't say the characters names right

Well the pronunciation thing was M. Night wanting the names to be pronounced according to Indian rules. So to him, the names in the movie are correct and the ones in the series are mispronounced. It's your fault for being ignorant Americans... or something or somesuch.